'Bachelor' host creates a steamy love triangle in his fiction debut

The longtime host of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" is branching out into a new form of media: the novel. In his first work of fiction, Chris Harrison follows in the time-honored tradition of writers like Nicholas Sparks and Robert James Waller with The Perfect Letter, a story of two star-crossed Texas lovers who have a second chance at rekindling their romance after a decade apart. Here, Harrison dishes on his switch to fiction, his writing inspirations and his continued belief in true love.

Charting a new course in Mischief Bay

Susan Mallery is a sparkling conversationalist: She’s funny, smart and easy to talk to about all manner of topics, from her writing career to dog breeds to her favorite eyeshadow brand (it’s Laura Geller).

When a big secret blows up

Australian author Liane Moriarity hit the bestseller list for the first time in America with her fifth novel, The Husband's Secret. Her follow up, Big Little Lies, is just as riveting and insightful. This time, the action centers on a kindergarten class, where parental tension and family secrets ignite on one fateful evening: the school's trivia night. We asked Moriarty a few question about her new book, the power of secrets and her personal mantra.

This prize-winning 'reporter of invented stories' tells the tale of an artist at midlife

What inspires a female writer whose work runs the gamut from a Pulitzer Prize-winning column to best-selling novels to thought-provoking essays? Anna Quindlen says she admires a number of female writers.

The good mother

A mother is torn between protecting her son and telling the truth in Carla Buckley's thought-provoking, suspenseful third novel, The Deepest Secret. Eve has spent the last 15 years fighting to keep her son safe from sunlight—he has a rare genetic disorder, XP. But one rainy night, a car accident changes her life forever, and Eve's conscience and her motherly love are put to the test. We asked Buckley a few questions about her new book.

The king that might have been

While the story of Henry VIII and his descendants continues to fascinate, it's getting more and more difficult for a writer to make it feel fresh. Debut novelist Laura Andersen manages that feat in The Boleyn King, a story that imagines what might have happened if Anne Boleyn had borne a living son. In Andersen's alternate universe, King...

Opposites attract in a whole new way

In Grace Grows, Grace Barnum thinks she has it all together until she meets Tyler Wilkie, a sexy singer-songwriter with his heart on his sleeve. His passion and adventurousness both challenge and irritate Grace, who in spite of herself cannot resist their connection. The result is a wonderfully slow-burning and satisfying love story of two souls...

Fostering a life in full bloom

Each year, nearly 20,000 young people “age out” of America’s foster care system, and many of them have nowhere to go. Writer Vanessa Diffenbaugh has transformed this sad statistic into an extraordinary debut novel.The focus of a fierce bidding war among publishers, The Language of Flowers tells the visceral and deeply touching...

A little lady, living large

She was one of the nation’s first celebrities— a miniature human who hobnobbed with presidents, queens and Rockefellers. P.T. Barnum showcased her in his American Museum, and her wedding knocked news of the Civil War off the front pages of newspapers. In a remarkable, soaring novel about 19th-century sensation Mrs. Tom...

A reader-requested sequel

The author of Shanghai Girls brings back three of her favorite characters in a new novel set during one of China’s darkest periods. Dreams of Joy is a sequel to one of your previous novels, Shanghai Girls. What made you decide to revisit that story and its characters? I didn’t plan to write a sequel. I thought the end of ...